Keeping chickens in a run full time?

[MotherQueenXeno]

Just wondered if any of you do this as oppose to letting your chickens free range in your garden? If so, how many chickens and how much run space do they have? Thanks!

Placemarking as I’d like to know this too.

As much space as you can give them! They will also destroy the grass, so you’ll have to keep moving it around.

My chickens free range, and watching them, they are moving all the time , eating grass, fighting over ants/worms/slugs, dustbathing and so on. They have a complex social life and need space to express that. If you are going to confine them, they need a lot of space and a supply of green leaves and fresh grass as well as things to stimulate them and stop feather pecking and bullying

Basically the less space your chickens have the more work they are.
Either the run stays in place and you have to regularly change the litter to stop build up of droppings and risk of parasites, or the run has to be movable onto fresh ground. Eglu runs are designed for this.
They are also more likely to develop the sort of behavioural problems that come from being bored.
It can be done but I am much happier with mine in a fenced off corner of the garden as frankly it’s less effort. They’re happier too as there’s space for them to forage and hide. But if you don’t have that option and are keen you can still have them, you will probably be giving them more space per bird and more interest than most large scale commercial operations.

I was thinking of a walk in run about 9ft x 9ft, it would be on wood chips instead of grass. Maybe I will fence off an area too, I am concerned about cats though as there are so many around here.

Cats stand no chance against chickens. My collie scarpers when they get cross with him

How many chickens in that area though?

I wouldn't worry too much about cats. My neighbour has free range chickens which regularly come to peck around in my garden. My cat gives them a respectful wide berth but is otherwise uninterested in them.

Sand is a good flooring for a run, drains well, easy to clean. I wouldn't worry about cats but is there cover? Hawks are pretty partial to a chook

I have 7 chickens who used to free-range but they just destroy the garden. So they've not been out since avian lockdown. They are in a run which is 12ft x 9ft on wood chip. They seem very happy.
I likely will let them out in the autumn/winter again, they are great scarifies for the grass!

Yes it has a roof, and would be for three or four chickens. Probably three. That's interesting about the cats I thought they would be a real threat.

Sorry the run is 10ft by 10ft

i have 6 chickens in a 20ft x 20ft run and they live in this permanently.(at my allotment which is a 2 minute walk from my house) i have to cut the grass in their run in the summer to avoid it getting to overgrown but they have just enough grass in the winter. i think it all depends on how much space you have.
i have 4 chickens in my garden as well (my garden is very small). they have a run sectioned of under some trees (all in around 4ft wide by 15ft long). there is no grass because its in the border of the garden. so i let them out every day after 4pm so they can munch some grass and forage a bit. i cant leave them out all day as i have only a small amount of grass and they turned it to mud when i had their run on it!

It sounds fine to me. What I would say though is heavily invest in fox-proofing. We dug breeze blocks around the perimeter of our run to try and prevent anything from being able to dig in.

I have 5 chooks in an eglu cube with a two metrex1 metre run attached which then feeds into a 3x3 metre run with a lot of parkour/raised levels for interest x

I like the idea of chicken parkour! Good idea about the fox proofing I thought we would be alright as we have very high walls and high fences but I have only just learnt that foxes are agile like cats.

I've heard 10 square feet per chook in the run if they're in there full time. But if you can let them out to free range some of the time it should be okay...your garden will be trashed but you can enjoy them being natural pest control

Rookie question, but with avian flu, don't hens have to be kept inside their houses at the mo, or is "within the run" enough? I only know from a local free range farm where hens are being kept in barns rather than free to roam.

@Laserbird16

I've heard 10 square feet per chook in the run if they're in there full time. But if you can let them out to free range some of the time it should be okay...your garden will be trashed but you can enjoy them being natural pest control

i think it depends on breed. i had pekin bantams and polands and they didnt destroy the garden at all. then i added a legbar and a legbar x poland and the grass disappeared really fast lol! plus my garden looked a mess as they are a real forager chicken. in my allotment in my big run i have 2 legbars and 3 polands and 1 pekin bantam. to be honest i could probably have 2-3 more comfortably but the bigger ones pick on smaller new ones. hence the reason i have 4 bantams in my garden.

@PineappleWilson

Rookie question, but with avian flu, don't hens have to be kept inside their houses at the mo, or is "within the run" enough? I only know from a local free range farm where hens are being kept in barns rather than free to roam.

Requirements were they had to be kept inside under cover. So for example a run with a roof would be fine.

The aim is to separate them completely from wild birds. So a run with sides all the way up to a roof would do that.

Avian flu is not a problem in the U.K. at the moment.

No, indeed, but it’s something you should be aware of if you’re getting hens now . It’s only a few months since the last set of restrictions were lifted and the one before that was only a few years back so it’s a good idea to be aware of what you could be letting yourself in for and plan your set up with an eye to how you would put them under cover if necessary.

We have a couple in a long run with integrated coop.

We live in the countryside and there are foxes literally crossing our garden every day. Because the chickens are enclosed, we have zero concerns. Also they just trot up their ladder whenever they want to go to sleep and we don't have to do anything.

We do have to move it every single week without fail - chickens are absolutely filthy. We move it around one part of the garden at the side. It also means our lawn where the kids play isn't covered in chicken shit!

I have to say they seem pretty well adjusted but that would not be the case if we didn't move them. You can see them actually wanting to be moved by the time each weekend rolls around! They get bored with their increasingly brown and shitty patch.

I know various people with chickens around here. The ones who go free range always lose some to foxes sooner rather than later. And their garden gets really destroyed.

We have 12 in a chain link run that's 5m by 14m, fully roofed. They have hay as bedding, they destroyed all the grass (though obviously it would only have survived around the outside anyway, because of the roof).

As well as chicken pellets, we give them armfuls of different plants and weeds from the garden every day, which they love. They have a designated dust bath area. There are shady areas and sunnier ones. They have plenty of space to hang out together or separately, and we have no issues with bullying, despite having a range of sizes.

We often see both foxes and buzzards in the area, which is why they don't free range. The roof is because half of them are silkies, which aren't as waterproof as other chickens so are better kept dry.